And if this hockey thing doesn’t work out…

It is reaching a point where one can’t miss a practice or morning skate because you don’t know what adventures Sean Avery may be up to.

Today there was this: while working out with strength and conditioning coach Reg Grant, Avery walks out and announces he will be singing with Jim Dolan’s band at the annual Marc Lustgarten Foundation benefit event for pancreatic cancer research at B.B. King’s in midtown.

“What are you going to do?” Avery said. “The boss asked me to do it.”

Avery even produced the lyrics sheet to the song, which will be played to the tune of “Not Fade Away” (of Rolling Stones and Grateful Dead fame). Among the highlights:

“They say I’m mean.
I’m just playing for my team.
Gotta win the game at any price, at any price”

There was more, but I didn’t have time to write it all down. Avery acknowledged that he’s been told he has to memorize the entire song, and yes, it may require a certain amount of liquid courage. But since he goes on at 11, he’s also not leaving himself much time.

Believe it or not, he actually has to behave himself while attending the game.

In other news:

Paul Mara is still out so you can expect the same lineup tonight against the Leafs. Tom Renney said Mara was more or less fit to play, so the scratch tonight is a coach’s decision. Tomorrow in Atlanta remains a possibility, however.

Today was an optional skate, so there was only a skeleton crew on the ice. And it again marked the return of Chad Killam, the former Manhattanville College goalie who has been called on to fill the other net when Henrik Lundqvist is absent. “My legs are burning a bit,” Killam said afterward.

As for Lundqvist, don’t be surprised if you see him playing back-to-back games tonight and tomorrow in Atlanta. Renney sounded like that’s where he was leaning. And you figured if you were going to see Stephen Valiquette, you’d see him tonight against the Leafs, whom he’s already had success against.

It is a great day for Zipay and myself. You may recall my co-owner and I made the bold move during our fantasy draft to snag the supposedly retiring Scott Niedermayer with a late-round pick (we also drafted Peter Forsberg, but that’s another story). Now comes “news that Niedermayer is coming back to the Ducks”:http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/news;_ylt=AhDrEsPKbBNU9nUrLkroXFl7vLYF?slug=ap-ducks-niedermayer&prov=ap&type=lgns. Apparently our vision paid off. I’d like to tell you this involved a covert trip to California where we convinced the defenseman to make another run at it. In reality, it merely involved me picking up my paper this morning and saying, “Hey, Scott Niedermayer is coming back.” Either way, Zipay and I are ecstatic.

Speaking of the paper, “my story today looks at Brandon Dubinsky”:http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071206/SPORTS01/712060425 trying to get past a personal low point game against the Canes.

34 Comments

They should play Valli in one of these games. I think we’ve seen that, although he’s awesome and thrives on workload, Hank is still human and gets tired. A few soft goals lately, too, which seems out of character and may point to a wee bit of fatigue. Or not.

Richard,
Per last post, i suspect you’re right about Roger’s juicing…been hearing that for years.

Hank’s definitely falling down to earth lately. I don’t know whether he needs MORE time, or less, though. Goaltenders are a mystery that nobody can really understand.

Earlier in the season Hank stops goals 1 and 2 against the Canes. That game definitely wasn’t his fault, but hopefully the good that comes from it is that the Rangers start truly realizing that he’s not going to single-handedly get them points anymore.

Hank is allowed a couple of questionable goals every now and then. I think he’s earned that. That being said I would sit him tomorrow against Atlanta so he rested for the devils on Sunday. That Devils winning streak must be stopped.

Rangers will win tonight 3-1. Martin Straka will set up all three Rangers goals` in the middle period after trailing after the first one when the puck was inadvertenly pushed in his own net by Henrik Lundqvist…

Lundqvist will stop a penalty shot by Alexej Ponikarovsky in the final stanza….

Earlier in the season Lundqvist stops the 2nd goal? Come on, it went in off a defenseman’s skate. As far as the first goal, I’ll never fault the goalie when there’s not one, but two giveaways in the slot. Sorry, goal #1 is on Dubinsky, 100000%.

Today I checked the stats and the Rangers leading the league with 55 goals-against with the Devils and Brodeur second with 66 and Tim Thomas and the Bruins with 68 after roughly one third of the regular season…

Beer Me!, I think he’s earned it with 2 outstanding vezina trophy nominated seasons where he has carried the team on his back and won games on his own. If he let’s in a bad goal or 2 every 20 games or so I’m going to let it slide.

If you rephrase it to say “you’ll let it slide” opposed to “he’s earned it” that’s a different story IMO. It’s not really worth debating, is it?

And I certainly think that Hank has been the best goalie this year. I don’t think you’ll find too many KNOWLEDGEABLE hockey fans/writers to dispute that.

Here’s something of relatively no importance…just a thought. Jags should have won the Hart Trophy with his (ranger) record breaking year 2 seasons ago. Had he won that, that would have automatically triggered his option year to kick in next season. Which we would be on the hook for 1/2 his salary(correct me if i’m wrong and it’s all of it). In hindsight, that was surely a blessing in disguise not winning that.

graves, you have to give Jagr some credit for making the playoffs both years. Yeah, Hank has been huge, but in 05-06, it was Jagr carrying the team. In 06-07, Jagr was a force towards the end of the season and during the playoffs. I’m not saying Hank doesn’t deserve credit, but Jagr deserves a share of it also.

This season has been all Hank. If we had 05-06 Jagr on this team, we would be 10 pts clear of 2nd place.